Cue lock



H. MORGAN Jan. 25, 1955 CUE LOCK Filed April 25, 1951 FIG.

mm T. N

7% a m, w. y

ATTORNEY United States PatentO CUE LOCK Herman Morgan, Lawton, Okla. Application April 25, 1951, Serial No. 222,850

1 Claim. (CI. 70-14) The present invention relates to billiard cues, and to means for protecting them against use by unauthorized persons.

At the present time, the games of billiards and pool are most usually played in public rooms, and the cues with which the games are played are kept in racks, so that they are available to the playing public for individual selection. Since such cues are made in various weights, lengths, diameters and degrees of taper, and since their tips have individual characteristics such as degree of hardness, arc of crown, and thickness, it may be readily seen that although all cues are useable, each player may prefer his own particular type. The result is that the room operators encourage their regular customers to label their preferred cue with their names, and the room operators thereafter attempt to keep such labeled cues isolated from availability to the general public. This is often done by providing lock-racks, or chests of drawers, but since such racks and/or drawers are usually openable by a single key, and since the key is usually available to anyone having a private cue, the customers often use cues which have not been assigned to them individually.

This may be done for experimental purposes, through curiosity, or the individuals private cue may be out of the rack for retipping, and he uses anothers private cue, rather than to select one from the unlocked racks which are available for the general public.

The principal object of the present invention is to provide a cue guard which may be locked upon each cue adjacent its tip, and when so installed, prevents the cue from being used in play. Cues thus protected may be stored at random, without fear of their being used by an unauthorized person.

A further object is to provide a guard for the purposes set forth, which is sufficiently small and light in weight that it may readily be carried in a mans pocket, when not installed upon the cue.

Another object is to provide a cue guard so designed that each one thereof requires an individual or particular ke An additional object is to provide a cue guarding mechanism of this class, which may also act as a hanger by which the cue may be suspended in a vertical position from a wall-hook or other wall projection.

Since billiard cues are made of wood, they are prone to become bent if left leaning against a wall or laying flatly in a drawer. It is a well established fact that the best way to keep a cue straight is to suspend it at the tip, so that its butt end hangs downwardly.

Another object is to provide a cue lock or guard, which is comparatively cheap to manufacture.

Other objects will be apparent from the following description when taken in conjunction with the accompanying single sheet of drawings, wherein:

Figure 1 is an elevational view showing the device of the present invention operatively installed upon a billiard cue;

Figure 2 is an enlarged fragmentary elevational view showing the tip-end portion of a conventional billard cue which has been equipped to function with the lock mechanism of the present invention;

Figure 3 is a similar view with the lock installed upon the cue of Fig. 2;

Figure 4 is a horizontal sectional view taken substantially along the line 4-4 of Fig. 3;

Figure 5 is an enlarged perspective view detailing the male member of the lock; and, I

Figure 6 is an enlarged perspective view detailing the female member of the lock.

Like characters of reference designate like parts in those figures of the drawings in which they occur.

In the drawings;

The reference numeral 1 indicates a vertical wall having a horizontal hook or bracket 2 rigidly anchored thereto: The reference numeral 3 indicates, as a whole, a conventional pool or billiard cue having an enlarged buttend portion 4 and a smaller tip-end portion 5.

of the cue 3 has a bone or hard-fiber ferrule 6 which is tubular in form, and which is disposed around and is cemented rigidly to an upstanding stud 7 which forms the end of the cue, per se. The cue 3 and stud 7 are integral, and are both made of hard and stifi wood. A leather tip 8 is cemented to the outer end of the ferrule 6 in a conventional manner.

The reference numerals 1 through 8 indicate conventional structure, and the elements indicated are not portions of the device, per se, of the cue lock constituting the present invention. The elements constitute, instead, structure with which the device of the present invention is associated.

In carrying the invention into being, a metal sleeve 10, having a superficial annular groove 11 therearound, is rigidly installed around the stud 7, and lies between the inner or lower end of the ferrule 6 and an upwardly facing annular shoulder 12 formed around the base end of the stud or pin portion 7.

The lock, per se, of the present invention consists substantially of a substantially U-shaped tongue, shackle, or male member 13 having two spaced apart parallel pin or leg portions 14 which are identical, and which have notches or serrations 15 along their adjacent or inner surfaces. The closed or central portion 16 of the member 13 is preferably strap-like in form, as shown, and its inner surface is provided wtih a rigid inwardly projecting conical knob or nodule 17. The outer surface of the portion 16 is equipped with an eye or ring 18 by which it may be hung on the bracket or other support 2 (Fig. 1).

The lock further includes a substantially rectangular metal housing or female member 20 having two spaced cylindrical holes 21 for receiving the portions 14 of the lock member 13. The housing 20 encloses a conventional key operated tumbler mechanism, not shown, but which is spring actuated to automatically engage the serrations 15 when the leg portions 14 are thrust into the holes 21. The lock mechanism is so arranged that the tumblers thereof release the serrations 15 when a key 22 is thrust into an aperture in the end 23 of the housing. The other end of the housing 20 is indicated by the reference numeral 24, and is provided with a rigid outwardly extending conical knob 25, similar in size to the knob 17 of the tongue member 13.

In operation, the tongue member is placed in position to straddle the smaller end portion 5 of the cue 3 at the bushing 10, so that the knob 17 is engaged in the annular groove 11 of the bushing. The lock member 20 is then passed on to the legs 14 and is moved toward the cue until the knob 25 is also engaged in the groove 11. The lock mechanism within the housing 20 thereupon retains the housing against outward movement along the legs 14, and maintains both of the knobs 17 and 25 in positive engagement within the groove 11. The lock, therefore, cannot be removed from the cue without release by the insertion of the key 22. As long as the lock remains upon the cue, the one cannot be used for playing purposes.

Applicant is cognizant of the fact that padlocks have heretofore been devised which include parallel legs, similar to the legs 14, and female lock mechanism for slidably engaging such legs, so that the two complementally surround some object, for instance bicycle chain-sprockets. Consequently, applicant does not interpret his invention to reside in the mere provision of the lock members 13 and 20, except as they are modified by the defining clauses of the appended claim.

As is common with cues of this class, the tip-end portion Obviously the'invention is susceptible to some change or alteration without defeating its practicability, and I there fore do not wish to be confined to the preferred embodiment shown in the drawings and described herein, further than I am limited by the scope of the appendedclaim.

I claim:

.- The combination with. a one having a depression adjacent its tip end, of: a substantially U -sl1aped shackle which embodies two straight parallel free end portions each carrying a row of transverse notches,. said shackle straddling said cue tip with said end portions; projecting laterally therebeyondg. a straight. inwardly extending: lug disposed rigidly in the closed end-portion of. the shackle and. entering said cue depression; a lock body having. two

spacedelongated openings slida'bly nesting said notched 15 end; portions. of the shackle; and a key operated mechanism within said body engaging, saidnotches and restraining the shackle-- against removal from the body and. retaining, the lug within said depression.

UNITED ST ATES" PATENTS Hines -2 Jan. 25, 1898 Crim et a1 Aug. 17, 1909 Sheen Feb. 22, 1910 Rousseau Mar. 4, 1924 Fraim June 16, 1925 Schroeder June 23, 1925 Jackson-ct a1. Oct. 16, 1928 Reyburn Jan. 25, 1944 Bowman Sept. 20, 1949 FQREIGN' PATENTS Great. Britain. of 1909 

